Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/101

Rh are the actual words of the canon, as they have been preserved to us by the learned Maronite Asseraani:

"That the six metropolitans of Hilam, Prath, Assur, &c, who are not very far removed from the patriarchal seat, do not fail to come like the others every four years. As for those placed at an enormous distance, like those of India, China, Persia, and Samarcand, who are hindered by lofty mountains infested with robbers, and by tempestuous seas continually occasioning shipwrecks, they may abstain from coming even though they would willingly do so; but let them not fail to communicate with the patriarch by letter every six years. They will also take care to levy in all the towns, great or small, a just and suitable tribute, according to the canonical rules; and to send this to the patriarch, as a contribution to the expenses of the patriarchal house."

This tax demanded by the synod was doubtless a sort of tithe, the institution of which indicates an already flourishing and regularly organised church. The far East possessed also at this epoch several monasteries, where the monks lived in community; for we find in the "Bibliotheque Orientale" of Assemani, a notice of a book called "The History of a Monk of China, and of Abraham." This production, which in all probability dates from the eighth or ninth century, begins thus: "This is what Abraham, Bishop of Bassora, says:—I was passing one day near the cell of one of the monks of China, and I asked permission to make a cell opposite to his, and to devote myself to the same exercises; this he granted." It was certainly a curious thing to see a Bishop of Bassora traversing